Pictures!

New emails have arrived. I am a little behind getting them on here but it is so good to know that he is in England safely and he seems to be happy.

27 October 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Carrigan,
It is with pleasure we welcome your son, Elder Jeremy Michael Carrigan, to the England Leeds Mission. We find him prepared and committed to serve the Lord and to share the message of the Restored Gospel.
Your son's first companion is Elder Olsen who was prayerfully selected to ensure the best introduction to missionary work for Elder Carrigan. They will be serving in the Newton Aycliffe 1.2 Area in the Billingham Zone. We are confident their relationship will be a mutual blessing.
Weekly encouragement from home will certainly help inspire Elder Carrigan's missionaryeffort. We encourage you to write him once a week with your letters uplifting in spirit.
Please let other family and friends know how important it is to write positive, encouraging letters that support missionary work. Your son's permanent address is now:
Elder Jeremy Michael Carrigan
England Leeds Mission
Lister House, Lister Hill
Horsforth
Leeds LS18 5AZ
England
You can send letters and packages to your son's flat address, but make sure you
remember transfers happen every six weeks. Families and friends are asked to not visit
or call their missionaries in the field. Such calls and visits will undermine the effectiveness of missionaries and their companions. Please feel free to call the mission president in the event of an emergency at home. Missionaries are not to call home without the president's permission.
Any anxiety of the missionary about finances will hinder the work. Please do not send
excess funds, too much money can be as detrimental as not enough. Personal, practical
and inexpensive gifts from home for birthdays or Christmas are permitted but adding
money to their personal funds is more cost effective. However, because missionaries
move frequently, and space is very limited; large, heavy or unnecessary items are
discouraged. Your missionary is limited to two bags and a briefcase. The best gifts are
consumables, such as ties, socks, small personal items, and goodies.
 I want you to know that Sister Pilkington and I consider it a privilege to serve with your son and promise to help all we can, and strive to direct his efforts in the Lord's way. We are available at all times, and Elder Carrigan's physical, emotional and spiritual welfare is of utmost importance to us.
Sincerely yours,
Graham Pilkington
President

Oct 27, 2014

Well I am here and it’s pretty awesome. I’m in a 2 person flat with 3 other elders, it’s pretty tight quarters. I’ll send you some pictures once I’m all set up but my trainer, that you should’ve gotten a picture of, is elder Olson and he only has about 3 months left so this is his last transfer. I’m in a town called Newton Ayecliffe. It’s pretty nice here some nice houses and really packed tight neighborhoods. I met my mission president and he’s great, super inspiring. It’s my 3rd day in this area and I’m already teaching 4 members. I have family home evening tonight with a less active and then I’m teaching 2 investigators. Also its pretty cool, Elder Olson is super good at talking with people. The story about me almost going home in the MTC is that we taught a lesson to an actor but we didn't know she was an actor so I was pretty nervous but then when we taught her she didn't want to talk to us at all and was a huge jerk and I didn't feel good about that at all. I felt the spirit leave me and it sucked so I went out in the hallway in the middle of class and I heard words come to my head that said give up but right as I heard that my teacher gave me that blessing. So I’m here, the ward is awesome, England is awesome, once I get unpacked my flat will be awesome!  I guess I’ll talk to you next Monday.

 

October 23, 2014

I am leaving for England in the morning at 6. Elder Casey however didn't get his visa in so he has to stay for a few more days to see if it will come in it sucks for him but yea I'm going! I’m doing OK. I'm just doing laundry again the night I leave and they said I could email home. I’m super happy I chose to do this. It sucked in the beginning and I almost came home believe it or not but my district saved me and my teacher brother Roberts (freaking awesome guy) gave me a blessing and I realized I was here for a reason. Oh and speaking of churchy things, I want you to look up a couple videos that I’ve seen out here. One of them is a Mormon message called "it was mom" and another thing is a talk that an Elder named Elder Cray showed us today. He’s a convert and he said that this talk is one of the reasons he is still in the church. It is called "His grace is sufficient" by Brad Wilcox and it’s a BYU devotional its super awesome! The Boston boys left yesterday morning and they were sad that we had to stay but they got to leave but they said that everything happens for a reason. I pulled Elder Cray to the side and talked to him about the talk and I said that I think that me seeing that was the reason why I stayed one more day in the MTC. He gave me a hug and said yea I thought that would help.  I’m doing great, I have been going to gym almost like every night and I have gained 3 pounds but I have been running and playing volleyball a lot so I think that's why I didn't gain like 15 like everyone else. I’ll write you again when I’m in England this next Monday. :)

Love Jeremy

 

Missionary Monday October 20, 2014

Email time! Such a great way to spend a Monday hearing from our missionary!

Things are going good I think. The book store has like everything you could ever want for a mission. The church doesn't even know when I'm leaving. I've been going in every day waiting for them to tell us but they don't even know supposedly but I think they just don't want to tell us because one of my companions visa hasn't come in yet. I have been writing in my journal like crazy. Alec told me he has his wisdom teeth appointment for the 28th, I think, so I told him to make to the MTC by Christmas because its awesome here on Christmas day. I went to the Provo temple for the last time today too it was pretty good. The main guy from Saints and Soldiers was in the presentation so that threw me off a little bit.

That was about it. I am hoping as he gets into the mission field that his letters will have a little more to them and that he will open up more about his experiences. Right now he's new and still writes like he is texting me. Lol! He puts that in a lot of his emails.

That's all for this next, more next week, hopefully he will be in England by then.

October 17, 2014 VISA is here!!!

Just got word from the church office that Jeremy's visa is here. He has flight plans for October 23rd. He flies out of Salt Lake that morning. Wish I could be there to see him off. I have sent him 2 care packages and mail. I have also heard people are emailing him. That is great! Thank you for all the support.

Missionary Monday Oct 13, 2014

I have waited all day for an email. Finally it came! I miss his noise in our home.  Here is what his new email said. Actually  he sent me three emails all at once. I guess he kept thinking of things while he was still able to email. Warning! His emails are not long and they are edited to be in letter written form instead of text message form.

The food isn't too bad. Its like glorified cafeteria food, haha! I have 2 companions both got there visas held back and are going to England like the same time I am, hopefully we leave on time together. Their names are Elder Casey and Elder Lapu'aho, they are both from Utah. I'm in a district with 7 other guys that are all going to Boston together. One of them is from england and we have been asking him questions constantly lol. We are all super close and its cool to have distractions with all the people here.  Uhh lets see what else i sent alec a letter. I just got back from the temple and it was awesome! Now we have an hour to email then we have to do laundry! haha I would love care packages with cookies everyone else is getting them that would be awesome too.

Love jer

His next one said:

oh and I'm district leader. lol.

 

Arrival at the MTC October 8,2014

Jeremy left this morning to serve the Lord in the Leeds England Mission. His visa did not arrive in time to go to the England MTC so he went to the Provo one instead. He was ordained a missionary the night before. He was given a beautiful blessing by President Mantlo. Then he stayed up packing half the night. I know he had all this time but waited until the night before. Alec Barton was there to share in the packing frenzy. We had to be to the airport at 6am. So it was going to be a long day for him. We are so proud of him and the decision he made to serve the Lord. His first email came that night. It reads:

From: Jeremy Carrigan <jeremy.carrigan@myldsmail.net>

Date:10/08/2014 9:05 PM (GMT-07:00)

To: banda86us@yahoo.com

Cc:

Subject: I'm here!!!!

I made it to the mtc. They are giving me 5 minutes to send an email home. uh I'm going to write a letter too and send it whenever I can.  I had a very long first day I hope the others go by faster then this. They say that they do but I'm not so sure haha. So yea i'll send another email on Monday.